John Martin was in Martinborough last month. Of course not the John Martin (The Hon John) who once held 35,000 acres of land here and who laid out the town in the 1870’s.
No, it was John Barrington Martin and his wife Penhale (a Cornish name pronounced Penail) – originally from Milton and Dunedin, but now retired in Perth, WA – who have been visiting NZ to look into the history of the local Martins. JB is a great grandson of Edward Martin, who was a full brother of Martinborough’s Hon John.
The Martins had arrived at Petone on The Lady Nugent in 1841 and while the young John stayed on in Wellington, most of the family, including Edward, went south to Dunedin.
A little further south, Edward took up land near Milton, close by the junction of what is now SH 1 and SH 8 (heading for Gabriel’s Gully and Central Otago) and named their place ‘Moneymore’. In due course, Edward’s son, James Smith Martin, became a grocer in Milton. His son, John More Martin, joined Bruce Woollen Mill Ltd which had started up in the 1890’s, and it is his son, John Barrington (JB), who has just been “in town”.
JB became a teacher in Dunedin, later teaching for 20 years at Wesley College in Dundee. John and Penhale are now retired in Perth and have been tracing NZ Martin relations.
They spent an hour or two in Martinborough three years ago when they were fortunate to meet the helpful and knowledgeable Mate Higginson but had no time to look for Martins. On this second visit, Mate again opened up the Martinborough Museum for them and, over a few days, they managed to see nearly all the local relations.
“I’ve been most impressed with the town,” John Martin said, “and the way it cherishes its colonial origins without being smothered by them. If I retired today, I’d want to come to Martinborough. Milton is too cold for us now and besides, the people here are so interesting and intelligent!”
The Perth Martins stayed at the Martinborough Hotel but unfortunately the John Martin suite was already occupied.”But we’ll be back,” they said.
